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Molly Ivins, 1944-2007

"So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."

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Please help

Posted Mon, 01/23/2012 - 08:30 by jlscott

"Foxconn"

Apparently, this story was run on CNN back in 2010. However, I
haven't watched CNN since the last presidential election. I got
sick and tired of it and decided I'll live a better life if I
never have to hear Wolf Blitzer's voice again.

I picked up the story last week due to new information, and I
couldn't possibly be more appalled! I must be horribly naïve
because when I hear of things like this going on in the world,
the shock of it nearly makes me physically ill!

Foxconn is the single largest private employer in mainland
China. It's a Chinese gadget manufacturer and Apple's supplier.
This is a huge company with one million employees. The
facility has hospitals, a fire station and restaurants. They
manufacture: motherboards, camera components, MP3 players,
iPhones, iPads and nearly every electronic gadget we use.

The employees:

Live at the facility and do not see their families

Bunk in barracks-like rooms with seven other employees

Often work 35 hours at a stretch

Make 31 CENTS per hour - which is a is considered a good wage

Get 12 years in prison if they even mention unionizing

Recently threatened mass suicide if conditions aren't improved

In the past year, 11 employees have committed suicide by jumping
from the buildings. Foxconn's solution for the suicide problem
is to hang nets from every building, thereby breaking the falls!

Nearly every time we buy an electronic in the USA, we are
contributing to this situation! It's every time if we buy from
Apple! Steve Jobs has practically been canonized since his death,
yet this is the situation he instituted for Apple.

With our ridiculous and glutinous appetite for electronics, are
we going to stop buying them due to this abomination? I'd love
to think we would. But, we won't.

If Foxconn were to implement humane conditions, it's estimated that our electronics would cost us 23% more. Now, I don't know about you, but $615 instead of $500 for an iPad seems a small price to pay to keep human beings from this kind of treatment.

But, that won't happen, either. In fact, I suspect the price increase would be much more. This is how Jobs got to be billionaire - with the people making his products making 31 cents per hour while he sold them for hundreds of dollars!

The only way to solve this problem is to remove the tax breaks our U.S. corporations receive for taking their manufacturing to China and make them bring those jobs home!

I realize we can't control what China does to its citizens. But, we don't have to be a party to it! And, we are!